Asset Reliability Inspections

Unplanned down time is the biggest headache for maintenance/production managers and is far more costly than planned down time due to the unexpected nature of the failures, logistics of staff and spares.

Regular visual and ultrasonic inspection of excavators to detect in-service cracking can greatly reduce the cost of repairs and reduce the amount of down time, ensuring your heavy machinery equipment spends more time doing what it is supposed to, rather than being parked up.

ARI have Heavy Machinery Inspectors that can find cracking before it becomes critical using visual, eddy current and ultrasonic testing techniques. The benefit of this is that cracks can be found, recorded, monitored and planned for repair at regular service intervals thus minimising unplanned major repairs after avoidable failures.

Please contact ARI to discuss your heavy machinery inspection needs.

State and federal legislation requires the regular in-service inspection of pressure vessels in accordance with AS/NZS3788 to ensure continued safe use.

The frequencies of inspection vary depending on the vessel type however this is usually every two years.  Further detail is provided in AS/NZS3788 Table 4.1 that lists internal and external intervals specific for each pressure vessel type.

It is the responsibility of the user (entity), who in most cases is also the owner of the equipment, to ensure the inspection is performed and is current.

Inspectors must be “competent persons”, the WA OH&S Regulations prescribe the definition of a competent person as listed in AS/NZS3788, which prescribes specific training and/or certification.  Our AICIP, API and ASME certified inspectors meet this definition and are competent in pressure equipment inspections.

Our degree qualified Inspection Engineers can assist with more difficult inspections such as fitness for service assessments and risk-based inspection plans such as non-intrusive internal inspection supported by NDT.

Please contact ARI to discuss your pressure vessel inspection needs.

Any air receiver at a workplace must be inspected as stated in the Occupational Safety and Health Act making it a legislative requirement. The inspections are required to be performed by In-service Inspectors of pressure equipment, such as our certified inspectors. The frequencies for these inspections are normally two yearly as per AS/NZS3788 Table 4.1.  The reason for this all inclusive requirement is because the OH&S Regulations definition of Pressure Equipment requiring inspection, being any pressure vessel with a hazard level of A,B,C,D as per AS4343.  This requirement essentially captures air receivers in the workplace, regardless if they require individual item registration.

At Asset Reliability Inspections (ARI) we believe in offering value for money and strive to meet our customers tight time restraints.

ARI recognise that the job is not done until the report is issued and strive for a standard 48hr turn around on test reports. ARI also offer same day reports on request as we understand that some jobs can be held up for inspection hold points and delivery, pending the issuing of quality reports.

This is why you should consider using ARI for all your NDT needs. ARI are a NATA accredited NDT Laboratory and provide experienced, certified technicians and NDT engineers who care about your job and meeting your expectations.

ARI offer the full range of NDT services including magnetic particle testing, dye penetrant testing, radiography, ultrasonic testing of welds, ultrasonic thickness testing and more specialised testing services detailed below. Our competent testing staff have various relevant industry sector backgrounds with senior staff holding tertiary qualifications in NDT and engineering in addition to the industry required NDT certifications. This ensures that you will get the level of competence your job demands at a competitive price.

Please click the links below for information about our specialised services.

• X-Ray Fluorescence – Positive Material Identification (PMI)
• Eddy Current Testing
• Borescopic Inspection / Remote Visual Inspection (RVI)
• Phased Array
• Digital Radiography

Please contact ARI to discuss your NDT needs.

Heavy earth moving machinery such as CAT® Mining Trucks contain ball studs that may require ultrasonic testing every 1000 hours to determine whether they are cracked or not. This testing is prescribed by the manufacturer in the equipment service bulletins.  The risk of not performing the inspection is that if the studs were to fail in service, the operator would lose steering control.

This is a readily preventable safety incident. Additionally testing reduces unplanned downtime and haul road/pit breakdown repairs. Prior experience has shown that a strong emphasis should be placed on performing the inspection as scheduled. The ultrasonic inspection only takes 15 minutes per truck to perform. ARI has researched and developed proprietary ultrasonic testing techniques, using custom made equipment to test from the bottom of the stud, eliminating the requirement to remove the grease caps, saving 45mins downtime per truck. Our research has been published at an academic level.

There are many in-house or non-accredited providers of this service, however ARI is NATA accredited to perform this test ensuring the confidence in our testing.

Please contact ARI to discuss your ball stud inspection needs.

ARI have teamed up with Total Heat Treatment Services to provide the high level heat treatment services that our clients require. You can find more information about Total Heat Treatment Services at their website: https://www.thtservices.com/

Total Heat Treatment Services is a wholly owned and operated Australian company. Established in 2011 in Adelaide, South Australia and Melbourne, Victoria by its owners Rick Taylor and Lester Mora. Total Heat Treatment Services was established for the purpose of providing Heat Treatment to the Oil and Gas, Mining, Power Generation, Engineering, Construction and Defence industries. We pride ourselves on offering exceptional technical services and customer satisfaction in the field of Heat Treatment. Total Heat Treatment (THT) Services’ staff are well trained, efficient and knowledgeable in all of the heat treatment services we provide. Our technicians receive ongoing support and training to ensure we provide our clients with a quality workforce. THT Services is committed to providing its clients with a competitively priced and professional service, without compromising on quality and safety.

Total Heat treatment Services has extensive experience in Heat Treatment, assisting many organisations during the fabrication, repair and maintenance on pressure equipment, pipework and structural items. Our service spans Australia wide. We have operated in all states and territories across Australia specialising in on-site heat treatment services. THT Services has the capabilities to take on major outages and projects requiring multiple sets of equipment and technicians through to smaller jobs. We can mobilise our technicians and equipment to remote areas around the clock, Twenty-Four Seven.

Total Heat Treatment Services include:

• On-Site Pre-Heating

• On-Site Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT)

• Refractory Dry-Outs / Curing

• Furnaces / Mobile Panelled Furnaces

• End Bell Removal and Installation

THT SERVICES is committed to providing a quality service to its customers by providing its clients with:

• Expertise in Heat Treatment

• All Safety and Quality Documentation

• Well maintained and reliable equipment

• High quality consumables

• Well trained and reliable technicians

• Equipment Sales

• Repairs and maintenance

• Training

• Consultation

• Heat Treatment Procedures

• Heat Treatment Reports and Request Forms

• Site visits and Heat Treatment Consultation

• Quotes accompanied with spreadsheet outlining costs

ARI have API 653 Tank Inspection, Repair, Alteration and Reconstruction certified inspectors and engineers. ARI are able to assist with recommendations on industry best practice in regards to the management of your tank assets.

As part of our API 653 service we are able to provide a full inspection service including assisting with calculating inspection frequencies with risk based inspection plans, developing scopes of work and detailing recommended repairs following inspection.

ARI are able to work in a broad range of tank industries including petroleum, chemical, water and more.

Supporting NDT inspection techniques may be necessary to determine tank integrity, such as MFL floor scanning, ultrasonic wall thickness measurement, vacuum box testing, magnetic particle testing, radiography and wall scanners; all of which can be performed by ARI.

Please contact ARI to discuss your tank inspection needs.

Wire ropes are typically critical for plant operation with no redundancy. Following the traditional replacement strategy can be a costly choice with premature replacement and unplanned downtime costs proving monumental.

The smarter strategy is routine inspection and condition monitoring; allowing for the replacement of the assets to be strategically managed, maximising rope lifetime and minimising downtime.

Wire rope MFL is a replacement for the slow process of visual inspection, which is difficult due to lubrication products and inability to detect internal breakages. We utilise the latest Residual Field Magnetic Flux Leakage Technique. Residual Field MFL works through the inspection and analysis of the residual magnetic field of a magnetised ferromagnetic wire rope. Changes in magnetic flux are detected where defects are present in the rope due to a change in cross sectional area (broken wires, corrosion or abrasion) or a change in permeability due to work hardening (fatigue).

See more information at our dedicated Wire Rope Website: www.wireropeinspections.com.au

Eddy current inspection is leading the industry for in-service inspections on coated components.  Without using eddy current you can be spending large sums of money removing and reapplying surface coatings to perform magnetic particle testing or penetrant testing.

Additionally ARI also have eddy current tube testing capability.

Eddy current has the ability to detect surface breaking defects such as in-service cracking under non metallic surface finishes and is second to none in this field. With the same level of portability as ultrasonic testing due to it being small and battery operated the equipment can easily be utilised in limited access areas and is heavily used with rope access inspection.

Eddy current will easily differentiate between paint stress “cracking” and real in-service cracking without the need to remove the existing coating.

Eddy current testing is also allowed to be use in lieu of magnetic particle for fabrication/production welds on pressure equipment built to Australian Standards AS1210, AS4041 and examined against AS4037.

ARI have competent, AINDT certified technicians who are highly experienced in eddy current inspections of in-service equipment including cranes, excavators, shovels and bridges.

Please contact ARI to discuss your eddy current testing needs.

Digital radiography has been in use in Australia since 2005 and recently is gaining significantly more acceptance/use.

Today all major refineries in Australia use digital imaging for pipe wall thickness inspection and this is helped by new international standards.

Benefits of Digital Radiography:

• No chemicals / dark rooms
• Shorter exposure times (profile thickness testing)
• Lower required source strength
• Digitised thickness measurement
• Instantaneous results
• Digital images can be readily shared
• Digital images can be enhanced for increased detail

ARI was one of the first companies to take up this technology and have ISO9712 certified staff specific to this technology.

Please contact ARI to discuss digital radiography inspection programs for your specific needs.

Weld Procedures – WPS and PQR (off the shelf ready to purchase)

ARI have certified Weld Inspectors that can witness, record variables and create weld procedure specifications (WPS) to both Australian and International Standards. We have many qualified weld procedures in our library that can be sold as off the shelf procedures that only require the addition of your company details and your acceptance of the document before they can be used. This means you can have a code qualified weld procedure (WPS) with the supporting procedure qualification record (PQR) information within an hour, saving you the time and potential failures of trying to qualify a procedure yourself. If we don’t have the process or material type you are after we may be able to make the procedure for you.

Weld Inspection

Weld inspection is required before, during and after welding to ensure quality and integrity is achieved and then maintained throughout the entire process. ARI have certified weld inspectors who can monitor your entire process or only a part of the process, if that is all that you require. We are then able to advise whether quality and compliance is being achieved to any standard you may be working to.

Welder Qualification

Many fabrication standards require welders to be tested before welding to ensure welder ability and project quality. These tests range from bend tests, fillet break, nick break, radiographic examination, ultrasonic examination and macro examination to name a few. ARI can assist in the entire process from witnessing weld tests and then qualifying welders by performing or managing the above tests.

Please contact ARI to discuss your weld inspection needs.

In the quality focused world we live in there are many reasons you may need to consider Positive Material Identification (PMI).  Some of these may be:

• If you not sure what material you are about to weld to
• Confirm material received aligns with supplied mill certificates
• Ensure piping/valve change outs are the same material as intended
• Assist with reverse engineering decisions
• Confirmation of welding consumable used if traceability has been lost

Our Delta Professional handheld XRF is one the best PMI analysers on the market with light element detection capability supported by our extensive sample material library.

Please contact ARI to discuss your PMI needs.

Boiler Tube Weld Testing

ARI are leaders when it comes to the take up of new technology. We have invested in small diameter pipe scanners to better service the power generation industry.  The scanners eliminate the need for radiation. Testing can therefore be performed during normal working hours without disruption to other work crews and without radiation exclusion boundaries. Our system is capable of inspecting small diameter pipe/tube welds, ranging from 20mm-115mm. It has a low profile to operate within gaps as small as 16mm, making it suitable for boiler tube inspection.

The equipment allows ARI to rapidly inspect welds in accordance with fabrication codes with the added benefit of producing a permanent digital record.

Corrosion Mapping

Curtin University of Technology research suggests that corrosion may be costing the Australian economy more than $30 billion each year, much of which is preventable. ARI have the latest in corrosion detection and mapping technology with phased array wheel probes and dual linear array probes with a resolution depth from 2mm. Both these units generate C scan images for our reports that clearly show the extend/depth of corrosion found.

Our equipment can be used on both ferrous and non-ferrous material. It is extremely portable and due to its size can be used in access restricted areas when compared to larger automated scanners.

Please contact ARI to discuss your phased array ultrasonic testing needs.

Pressure vessel design verification can be complex and requires highly specialised expertise.

ARI have experienced design engineers with tertiary qualifications in mechanical and process equipment engineering. We have the capability to design, verify and determine fitness for service for pressure equipment utilising Australian and International standards.  This is done by either calculation or finite element analysis (FEA) for complex designs and sometimes a combination of both.

Our experienced engineers can design verify pressure vessels to AS1210, ASME VIII and other suitable design standards as listed in AS1200 Table 2.1.   Additionally ARI can manage the entire application process for the design approval number with the State or Territory regulator of choice.

Our JAS-ANZ registered ISO9001 scope of accreditation, specifically covers design services enabling us to be able to submit applications for design approval with WorkSafe WA.

Please contact ARI to discuss your design verification requirements.

ARI have professional Olympus IMS videoscopes that enable us to perform confident remote visual inspections. Our scopes have articulating ends, with changeable tips for both near and far field inspection and a 90 degree near field tip specific for heat exchanger tubing. With hours of video recording and still picture capture capability we are able to distribute and/or retain permanent records for future comparisons. The 6mm diameter makes it very accessible and a valuable tool for pressure vessel inspection.

Please contact ARI to discuss your RVI needs.

ARI have several multidisciplined ISO9712 Level 3 certified technicians. NATA accredited laboratories or laboratories wishing to gain accreditation for Non-Destructive Testing require the involvement of a certified Level 3. ARI can supply contract Level 3 technicians to facilities to assist with all aspects of ISO17025 including:

• Test records and reporting requirements
• Proficiency testing
• Quality manual auditing and development
• Staff training
• Procedure writing
• Audit preparation
• Implementation of quality systems

Please contact ARI to discuss your Level 3 needs.